Hand-lamp



c. HAMB'UECHEN.

HAND LAMP.

APPLICATION FILED APR.27I 1917.

Patented Aug. 30, 1921.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

I Y IQ I I am m\ w Q m w m k MI W W m I W IIJIHIIV W n FL fix I M Q \NN\ II m I w\ N m N l/wEy rel? M HTTORNEYS c. HAMBUECHEN.

HAND LAMP.

APPLICATION FILED APR.27, 1917.

1,388,948. Patented Aug. 30, 1921.

. 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

IN VEN TOR k 4 TTOR/VEVS Belleville, in the county of St. Clair,

res

1:" ,u. OF BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESN'E ASSIGN- MENTS,TON'ATIONAL CARBON COMPANY, INC.,

PORATION OF OHIO.

OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A 003- HAND-LAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 30, -1921..

Application filed April 27, 1917. Serial No. 164,838.

To all whom it may concern .5

Be it known that I, CARL HAMBUEOHEN,

at tate of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Hand-Lamps; and I do hereby declare the followin to be a full, clear,and exact description of t e invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to battery and hand lamps, and morearticularly to the form and arrangement of the electrical conductorsused therein.

Battery hand lamps, especially those in the form of relatively longcylindrical torches, are usually rovided with. switch mechanismoperative rom the outside of the casing and cooperating with a metallicstrip or stri 3 within the casing and forming part of the amp circuit.The battery is contained in a paper orpasteboard carton and housedwithin the tubular casing. When the battery containers become perforatedthrough use or age, it frequently happens that the liquids thereofpermeate the aper carton and in time corrode the metallic conductingstrips within the casing of the apparatus. Also, the batteries areinclined to swell and become stuck in the casing, and their forcibleremoval is liable to disarrange the conductive strips and even tear themfrom their fastenings within the casing.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the possibility ofcorrosive action upon the conducting stri or strips by placing it, orthem, outside 0 the battery 0 amber. This I am able to do with economyand convenience and with a marked increase in the reliabilit of theapparatus. A modified form 0 the inventioneliminates entirely from thebattery chamber of the casing all metal which might be corroded by thefluids from the battery.

Other ob'ectsand advantages of the invention will be apparent from adescription of certain preferred embodiments thereof, as illustrated inthe accompanying drawing s, in whichi re 1- is a view of the exterior ofa battery and lamp showing the invention applied thereto;

a citizen of the United States, residin 'Fig. 2 is a view partly insection of the same lamp;

Flg. 3 is a transverse section along the l1ne 3 3 of Fig. 2; i

Fig. 4 is a View of the exterior of fied form of the invention;

. Fig. 5 is a view partly in section of the hand lamp shown in Fig. 4;and J Fig. 6 is a transverse section. along the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, in which similar reference characters denotesimilar parts throughout the several views, 10 represents a modiacasing-constructed of any desired insulating materialsuch as fiber. Atthe front end of the casmg is a sleeve 11 provided with'screw-threads-by which a collar 12 is attached. The collar serves toclamp in place a lens 13 and a metallic reflector 14, the

outer rim of which is clamped between the end of the fiber casing andthe lens. The reflector is provided at its base with a screwthreadedsocket adapted to receive a small incandescent lamp 15. The reflectorthus constitutes a part of the lamp circuit. The

inner terminal 16 of the lamp engages a terminal 17 of the battery 18,these two terminals being held. in contact by a spring 19 which engagesthe other end of the battery and is held in place by a cap 20screwthreaded ufpon a sleeve 21 attached to the rear end 0 casing 10.The battery may be of usual construction comprising a plurality of cellsarranged end to end and inclosed in a paper or pasteboard carton. Thepressure of spring 19' maintains good connection throughout this seriesof cells.- Spring 19 is in contact with a naked zinc container whichforms the other terminal of the bat tery and the circuit from the springis continued through the cap 20, sleeve 21 and a conducting strip 22placed within a channel on the outside of casing 10 and having one endretained in place beneath sleeve 21, as shown most clearly in Fig. 2.The other end of strip 22 is laced beneath, and contacts with, a metalic plate or shield 23 attached to the casing by means of rivets 24.

in place upon the metal plate by means of,

pins 27 which pass through slots 28 in the metal plate. Beneath themetal plate these rivets 27 pass through a conducting strip 29 which islaid within a channel on the outside of casing 10 and passes undersleeve 11 and makes electrical contact with reflector 14. In Figs. 1 and2 the sliding thumb piece is shown in the open circuit position 1n whichosition the rivets 27 are at the rear ends 0 the slots 28. When thethumbplece is moved along the metal plate 23 toward the front end of thelamp, conducting strip 29 is moved along through its channel in theexterior of the casing until its forward end comes into contact with therim of the reflector 14, thus establishing the lamp circuit from theterminal 17 of the battery through the terminal 16 of the lamp, throughthe filament of the lamp and the outer socket thereof, thence throughthe metalllc reflector, conducting strip 29, and plate 23, against whichthe conducting strip 18 heldby the rivets 27, thence through the conductng strip 22 to the sleeve 21, cap 20 and spring 19 to the other terminalof the battery. As long as the thumb piece is held in its forwardposition the lamp circuit will be closed. The only parts of theconstruct on described above which lie within the caslng and which maybe corroded under the action of any liquids which leak out of thebattery are the heads of rivets 24 and 25, but these are ofcomparatively small area and there is little or no chance that they willbe seriously affected by the corrosive action of this liquid. Ifdesired, these rivets may be of insulating material and strip 22 may besoldered to collar 21 and to plate 23. In the modification illustratedin Figs. 4, 5 and 6, the fiber tube, the sleeves, collars, the lens,reflector, lamp, battery and retaining spring are of the same generalconstruction as in the other figures. In this construction, a conductingstrip 30 is attached to the under side of the rear sleeve 21, as bymeans of a rivet 31, and extends along the exterior of the tube. Thestrip may be of rounded cross-section, as shown in Fig. 6, with itsedges set into and protected by shallow grooves in the fiber tube, andterminates in a shield or plate provided with an inte ral switch-housing32. The shield is attac ed' to the outer surface of the fiber tube bymeans of rivets 33 which preferably are so far forward as to be out ofthe battery chamber of the casing and so not exposed to danger ofcorrosion in case of battery leakage. The top of the switch-housing isprovided with a slot 34 through which passes the shank of a button orthumbpiece 35 having at its lower end a folded contact spring 36 whichis considerably wider than the slot 34 so that it will not springupwardly through the latter. The contact spring 36 is provided with twoindentations,

one or the other of WhlCll may snap over a fiber stud 37 to hold thecontact spring in either of two positions. Other forms of switchmechanism may here be used with equally good results.

For the purpose of completing the lamp circuit, a conducting strip 38 islaid along the inside of the lamp chamber at the front end of the tube,and has its forward bent end clamped between the edge of the fiber tubeand the rim ofthe reflector. The other end of this conducting stripextends through an aperture in the tube and is hooked over the outsidethereof to retain it firmly in position.

In order to complete the circuit of the lamp it is only necessary topush the button 35 and with it the contact spring into a position suchthat the folded edge of the spring engages the bent-over portion ofconducting strip 38 in which position thesecond depression of thecontact strip will snap over stud 37 to aid in retaining the contact.spring in its circuit-closing position. The action of the depressions inthe contact springs and the stud 37 while sufficient to prevent thecontact spring from being accidentall displaced when the lamp is beingcarrie will not, however, interfere with the convenient manipulation ofthe push button to make or break the circuit of the lamp.

In this embodiment of the invention, there is no metal part within thebattery chamber of the tube and exposed to accidental corrosion. Whilethe conducting strip 38 lies within the casing, it is within the lampchamber, and so is beyond the reach of corrosive liquors leaking out ofthe dry cells and wetting their paper envelop.

If the lamp is being carried in a tool box or other place where itsmetallic fittings may come in contact with tools or other con ductingdevices there will be no danger of the lamp being accidentally lightedsince the edge of reflector 14 through which lamp current is conductedis surrounded by collar 12 and cannot come in contact with anyextraneous metal. The lamp is therefore nonshort-circuiting in the sensethat the batteries cannot become accidentally exhausted.

While two embodiments of the invention have been shown it will beunderstood that various other changes may be made in the details ofconstruction without departing from the principle of the invention.

I claim 1. In a hand lamp a tubular insulating casing having a batterychamber, a batter fitting closely within said chamber, a meta lic cap onone end of the casing for retaining the battery in place thereon, saidca being electrically connected with one term1- nal of the battery, ametallic reflector at the other end of the casing, a lamp mounted inthe-reflector, and Connected to the other terminal of the battery, andmeans for controlling the circuit through said lamp, said meanscomprising a conducting element movable into and out of engagement withthe reflector, an actuating member for said conducting element, and asecond conducting element mounted upon the exterior of said casingbetween said cap and said actuating member.

2. In a hand lamp a tubular insulating casing having a battery chambertherein, a battery within said chamber, a sleeve upon one end of thecasing, a metallic cap screwed upon the sleeve for retaining the batteryin place and electrically connected with one terminal of the battery, ametallic reflector at the other end of the casing, a lamp mounted in thereflector and connected to the other terminal of the battery, and meansfor controlling the circuit through said lamp, said means comprising aconducting element movable into and out of engagement with thereflector, an actuating member for said element, and a second conductingelement fixed upon the exterior of the casing between said cap and saidactuating member.

3. In a hand lamp, an insulating tube forming a battery chamber, abattery therein, a lamp connected with one pole of said battery, areflector for said lamp, and switch mechanism for connectin the otherpole of said battery with said re ector, said mechanism including a.contact element positioned outside of said battery chamber and mov--able into and out of contact with said reflector.

4. In a hand lamp, an insulating tube forming a battery chamber, abattery therein, a lamp connected with one pole of said battery, areflector seated on the end of said tube and insulated thereby andformed with a socket for the reception of the lamp,-and switch mechanismfor connecting the other pole of said battery with said reflector, saidmechanism including a contact strip positioned outside of said batterychamber and movable longitudinally of said tube into and out of contactwith said reflector to control the flow of current from the battery tothe lamp.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

CARL HAMBUE CHEN.

